Visions of Swordland
by C.F.Winchester. Finalage
Summary: The five senses are our faithful friends in this world, but can they betray us? What happens to us when our familiar frends become our deadly enemies?
1. Swordland

Author's Note: Before you become angry with me, know this. If you wish me to continue this, I will try. However I am a very...fickle Author. I run on a very precarious balance what with work and such, and thus if I decide to come out of hiatus for this story...even with that commitment, I will be slow.

I also have a tendency to place quality over speed. I CAN if I so desire be quick, as I have proven before (Despite that being before I had a job.), however I prefer, currently to be more heavy on ideas and story cohesiveness.

You have been forewarned.

~SAOGGR~

_Annotation i: This story takes place in a branch off universe, directly after the events displayed in Sword Art Online's Anime, the "final" episode number 25. I have no knowledge of the Gun Gale arch, save for the fact that it exists and that is a VRMMORPG (Or is it an FPS? No...I dont think it was first person...) with a firearm focus. This is all I have to work on. Thus everything beyond those facts are pure speculation and fall under the fan fiction author's "creative license"._

_This first chapter, as it is part introduction, part prologue and part story, is most likely five parts boring, but since I am building it to be acceptable as a first chapter and or as a stand alone one-shot, I believe boring details are necessary for setting purposes. This is also long as a result of the above. _

_Thank you._

~SAOGGR~

_I need no prologue...the anime speaks for itself as one. However..._

_Sword Art Online:_

_§Gun Gale Reloaded§_

_Sword Art Online; a VRMMORPG featuring a full dive system, the Nerve Gear, which allows the player to control their virtual avatar in a virtual world using nothing but the same tools they use for their own bodily propellant; their brains, or more specifically; the nerve signals that are generated and received from this central control device. _

_The human brain was still very much a mystery, despite great strides in the art of expanding its use beyond controlling one's own body. With such great progress, the line between what is "real" and what is not has grown excruciatingly thin. _

_After all, the Virtual Reality realm of gaming has very much proven that what you think, for you, is. If not for this simple fact, the Virtual Reality franchise would crumble..._

_...and this story would not exist._

SAO: Gun Gale Reloaded~

Chapter 1: Swordland

_April 8th, 2026 - Offline._

The sky lit up under the violent lance of lightning that had accompanied an explosion of thunder. A car alarm began to blare somewhere distant in response, but it was lost in the crescendo that called itself the rain. Trees swayed in the accompanying wind, their leaves ripped free to be squashed underfoot into a sodden, slippery mess as Kazuto ran through the storm. His windbreaker did not provide much protection, especially since the zip-on hood kept getting ripped from his head by the wind; so he was trying to get home quickly.

He growled when he slipped under a pile of sodden leaves and almost fell, landing hard on his other foot and barely losing his headlong stride.

_I can hardly see for all this rain. It's falling like sheets, not like drops... If I did not know any better, I would say I would say I was swimming instead of running._

The cloth case that held his kendo weapon bounced soggily against his back from the jerk, he knew that even treated as it was, it would be rather useless until it drained out and dried after this spell.

Which was a real shame, since he had come to rather enjoy Kendo after his experience in SAO. It was almost...soothing really; just to be able to spar without a set goal, or a mission to accomplish, or even the worry that if he lost he would die.

To just revel in the exercise itself, for he doubted he could ever defeat Sugu.

_No, that isn't it. I just can't place my heart and soul into it like she does. I need something more to fuel my drive than just the vague desire to win._

_...I don't posses the passion for kendo that she holds._

Another bolt of lightning split the sky in two, and the accompanying boom caused another vehicle to complain rather loudly that it had been startled by it. Kazuto grit his teeth against the noise. His mind unbidden, took him back to a situation where he did indeed have the drive...

_The Black Cats dying one by one, Sachi saying thank you to him as she too vanished, the scene of the Liberation Army sprawled out in front of the Gleam Eyes. Asuna lying there after a failed charge. Faster...faster...he had to go faster! Kuradeel killing and being killed, himself fighting Heathcliff, Sentinels clouding the air around him as they converged on him...it was just a game...this one was just a game! He could break it if he just pushed...harder! Asuna, he needed...to get...to Asuna!_

Another crack of thunder, weaker this time, spurred him out of his daymare, just in time to see his street was coming up.

_Well I can finally get out of this damn rain at least. I wonder if everyone else has already dived without me. Probably have. I went to the dojo by myself after school, Sugu had already gone home by the time I got there._

Unlike Sugu, who had the fortune to go to school in town, Kazuto traveled out of town on a bus to go to a special school that had been set aside for those individuals that were affected by their time in SAO.

It was a multi grade school that featured scaled curriculum in small class settings, from intermediate to pre and mid university. There was no enrollment test and he was allowed to attend without a tuition, and if he passed he could receive a degree from the local school of his choice. (Permitting his grades matched that school's standards obviously.) The school also offered job training and a board to help with placement for those who were older and who had lost their jobs; again without charge. They even went as far as to include an option for in-house dorm placement if need be.

It was a good deal, and Kazuto took it despite knowing it probably was a ruse just so the government could study the effect on those who had been trapped in a virtual reality for two years.

Not that he particularly cared. He was with his friends, those few he had made in that time, and he had to admit that despite being a good student, he would have been hopelessly lost in the curriculum he was supposed to cover at his age had he not had this smaller, more one on one setting and attention.

He had taken this opportunity, but it did come with some draw-backs, one of which being his commute time.

Since he had opted to stay at home, it took about an hour on the bus to go from there to a local terminal, and from there about a fifteen minute walk home, or, as he had done, a ten minute walk to he dojo, after which he would usually walk home in about 20 minutes,, or, as he had cursed his luck with this rain upon exiting the dojo; a good ten or so minutes run.

Kazuto bolted into his house; closing the door behind him as quickly as possible without slamming it, and then standing in the entryway, blinked at the sudden lack of assault from water. His hair drooped in his eyes, which annoyed him and made more water run down his face, but he mainly ignored it...it would not make him any more wet that he already was.

"Hello? I'm Home!"

Despite knowing full well that Sugu had probably Dived to explore the new patch to ALO that included the entire world that was Sword Art Online, and that his parents were most likely working late...

Again I might add.

He still, out of habit said hello to the empty air and indifferent house. Hey, at least the talking walls would never say he was rude.

_Call me paranoid but I have no doubt these walls can talk, or more like the cameras I can guess were installed "can"._

He shrugged off his windbreaker, as well as his bag and kendo sheath, grimacing at the torrent of water he was spilling on the floor in the process, and took off his boots before rolling up his pant legs.

_If they have enough free money to provide a full scale institution to minor SAO survivors, I have no doubt that have the funds to secretly keep tabs on a few choice ones in their homes...and they were more than just a little interested in me when I first came awake._

He then grabbed his boots and headed to the kitchen, which had the closest sink. He put his boots in there and took his windbreaker and wrung it, watching the water drain away, he then took his boots and dumped them upside down, appalled at how much water they had collected. Grabbing both things, he rinsed out the sink and went to the bathroom, where he deposited his windbreaker in the sink and his boots with it.

He went back for his bag and kendo stick, which had made a puddle on the floor. Thoughtfully squeezing what water he could out on the spot, he mopped up the mess before continuing up the stairs.

Kazuto walked past his sister's room, hearing no sound. He did not pause at her door to knock. There was no point. If she had dove, she would not respond anyway.

_I'll meet her when I log on. It seems so odd. To be in the same house and yet still have to go online to say hi...for a lot of people, logging on is a way to see friends far away, but when you have to do so to say hello to someone in your own house...it feels less like a convenience and more like a hassle._

Kazuto entered his own room, hefting his kendo stick and putting it on one shoulder so he could take off his bag and then the stick on top of it.

_At least I can minimize the water I have to clean up that way..._

Kazuto looked to his shelf, picking up his nerve gear. It felt heavy. Something about it seemed off about it...it felt as heavy as it had when he first took it off...in that hospital bed, months before.

_I'm over thinking things._

Kazuto plugged in his gear. He placed it carefully over his head. The reliable piece of technology had served him well, it still worked like new, despite its beaten up exterior. The lights for power and connectivity (WAN) winked on, pending the third on his mark.

Time to become Kirito.

"Link Start!"

_**+~-1-~+**_

**Five senses...registered.**

**Do you wish to use you SAO avatar?**

...Everytime I log on, it asks me this. At first I thought it happened to everyone, but no. Everyone I know chose to switch, unlike me...and when they did, the message vanished. But I never switched, and so it continues to bug me...it's nothing really...but it is a bit annoying...

but...

today...

"Yes."

A set of colours streamed before his eyes as a message showed up claiming that it was loading and then rendering his old avatar. Meshing his SAO self with his ALO self. Combining the spirigate wings with the humanoid body.

The world meshed itself into reality round him, like the light of day slowly flooding a room, chasing the night, until suddenly, he was there.

_I'm home._

Kazuto, no; Kirito rose from where he had been lying down in an inn, tossing his feet to enter shoes and windmilling his shoulders before moving to do so with his arms from the elbow up.

He stared at his hands before feeling the tips of his ears. Round. They were no longer long and elvish in nature. He took a glance down at himself and was satisfied. Deleting his items when coming to ALO had cleaned out his shared storage, but it had left some things locally stored, like Yui, intact.

...Speaking of Yui...

"Papa? Papa! You logged in! Leafa was looking for you earlier, but then she left with Recon. They want to tackle floor twenty two of the castle today..."

She trailed off as she realized that she was indeed looking at Papa. This was the papa she had first met and christened with that title. This was the body that she had snuggled next to on the couch of his home, the one that had given her food from his own plate...very...**spicy**...food.

Kirito's head snapped up at the mention of that floor, and his question stopped short Yui's thoughts.

"Floor 22...you mean where...our house was..."

He absorbed this information before asking Yui where Asuna was.

"Mama...hasn't logged in yet."

Kirito deflated a little when he heard that, but got up from the bed and pulled up his menu; accessing it to find where his friends were. A little list popped up, one that was none the less a lot larger than it had been in his SAO days when he had stubbornly kept none. It showed Agil, Asuna(Spouse), Klien, Leafa, Lizabeth, Recon, Silica and Yui(Familiar).

Ever since the SAO patch, Kirito had noticed many things that seemed to have been transferred over, including Asuna's spouse status with him.

But many were not. SAO in itself seems to have been wiped clean, the quests and bosses re-set to make way for a new generation of players. ALO supports sword skills now, and our health bars have been remodeled into one of a more similar design to SAO, though with an MP bar along the top of it... but the SAO castle area drains your MP to zero once you enter it.

ALO adapted, SAO rigidly stayed the same.

_Therefore...there is no guarantee that...our house is even still there._

When he thought about it, it made the most sense that it was not. The game had been wiped of all things player related, and no one else had kept any property the owned. Granted, most of them had owned building already established in game and those buildings remained, just marked as unowned.

No one Kirito knew closely seemed to have made the endeavourer Asuna and He had, to build a house of their own on a plot of real estate in a remote corner of land, away from any pre-established properties.

Of course, they had seen it crumble in front of their eyes as SAO's servers had been "reset" when they had defeated Heathcliff, but did that really mean the place they had met Yui, the place they had built together, their home...no longer existed?

_Half of me does not even want to know..._

As he watched Leafa move about on the 21st floor, he saw a blip as one of his friends names switched from greyed out to black, then bold as it registered as his spouse. Asuna was logging on. Kirito stood a little straighter before switching to see where she was. She had loaded in the ALO verse.

Sighing, Kirito closed his friends list and brought up his inventory, calling up his blade before looking up his skills. Another thing that seemed to have been transferred over from his previous account were his own personal sword skills, which Yui had told him the first day he joined ALO, but what she had not told him was that Dual Wielding was one of them.

_I can't use it yet though. It seems like I have to "re-earn" it. That's fine by me...a game is boring when there is nothing to accomplish._

His skills had stayed, but not his stats.

_...I'm going to have to rely on my skills. This game has not leveling system and that is something that ALO has NOT changed to accommodate SAO. I wonder how players will defeat higher level floors...will we just mass them with mini armies to make up for our poor HP? Our stats do change but not very easily..._

...but enough of this...

"Right. We go help Leafa then. Do you mind sending Asuna a message telling her where I am going?"

Yui spun about in a circle before forming herself into her pixie form. He always thought that was a cute flourish, she did not need to do it, she did it for style. She flew up to sit on his shoulder before responding.

"Done! Shouldn't we wait for mama though?"

Kirito shook his head and he walked out the room ad into the hallway before he made his way out the building and into the streets.

"Mama is fast enough, she can catch up, and I want to make sure Recon does not blow himself up again."

It was a running joke after Recon had used dark magic against the sentinels and self destructed. It was a powerful blast spell, and was an incredible achievement, especially for a Slyph, who by nature were more attuned to wind and the lighter elementals... but Kirito and Asuna just found it rather hilarious that blowing yourself up was a legitimate way to defeat opponents in this game.

Hilarious and disturbing, coming from SAO where death was, by no exception, final...and Kami-kaze's in the real world did not come back...

_Not only that, but since Recon is a mage first and swordsman fifth, he will have to rely on the MP pot trick in a pinch, which means he will probably do just that and blow up if things get serious._

Kirito exited the town's borders, and swung his blade to a more handy position from his back. He took a quick glance around before running forwards. He had no teleport crystals, so he had to get to he next town and use a pre-established gate, as the town he was in was a small trading post. As he ran, he thought; watching for beasts that might swing into his way.

His feet beat a well known rhythm along the dirt road as he ran, kicking up dust behind him as the grass flew by on either side, slowly becoming a blur as he pushed himself to go faster, faster. The sun was out in full force, it's heat contrasting with the freezing rain he had dealt with hardly a half hour before. The wind tugged at him with warm fingers, but Kirito had only mind for the clouds and sun, he chased them as best he could, willing himself to win the impossible race.

The "MP Pot" trick that Kirito was referring to was a abuse of the system really, one that Kirito himself had noticed and dubiously passed onto his friends. The fact was that the SAO area did not simply prevent you from using MP, it just drained it a prodigious rate as you stood idle, making it impossible to keep you MP for use. However...

If you used an MP pot powerful enough to push your MP to full and then quickly cast a spell...

It was possible, if you were quick enough, to cast a spell before your PM drained out; thus using magic in a musicales zone. Since SAO monsters had absolutely zero magical defense (due to the fact they generally don't even need it...) this trick could have devastating effects...but it was an expensive trick to pull.

Kirito did not pause as a dire wolf formed in front of him, instead he ran even faster, his blade straight out as if to impale the beast. It loped before hunching down and pouncing at him. He swung his blade straight up as he ran and slashed at it in passing; once, twice. It fell unto its back as Kirito skidded to a stop, eying it as it righted itself with a growl, red lines along it slowly fading away as he circled it.

Getting an MP pot that could replenish your entire store was ludicrously expensive, while on the other hand popping smaller ones in succession quick enough to emulate the same effect left you sick and dizzy, most of the time canceling out the effort, since by the time you recovered, your MP was gone again.

But if you could do it, even once, in an emergency...it Could turn the tide of battle. Which was why it was not wasted and usually when done, the person would pull their most powerful spell.

Which, at the moment out of all of them, was Recon's self destruct, bar none.

Kirito lunged in and mercilessly brought down his blade upon the wolf's back, making a pained howl tear from it's throat as it twisted to avoid being cut completely in half. It growled before charging him, but Kirito sidestepped and slashed at it's legs before following up with a slice that took it's head clean off. It dissipated neatly as Kirito snapped his blade back in front of him, eyeing the trail.

This was the 20th floor. He had to travel at least six more kilometeres before he would reach the outskirts of the next town. He flicked his blade with a wide flourish, frowning slightly at it's balance. The broadsword was a lowly beginners weapon, and regardless of how far it had taken him, in this body, in the SAO universe, it revealed itself for it's faults.

_I should try to find a longsword in the next town if I do not find one along the way. It does not need to be expensive, almost anything I find will have some advantage over this. Broad swords are known for their punch, so this weapon has lasted far longer than it should have._

He swung his blade experimentally through the air.

_Still...I think I'll keep it in my inventory at the very least... This sword and I have been through a lot._

An image flashed into his mind of a treacherous head screaming as it fell to be impaled through the eye by his blade...

Setting his face, Kirito rose the blade so that it would stream behind him in his grip as he ran, and braced himself before kicking off with speed. More wolves appeared in front of him, but none of them could reach him.

The Black Swordsman of the Assault Team, the Solo Beater, dual-wielding Kirito; would not fall to such easy prey.

_**+~-2-~+**_

Alfihem Online - Sword Art Online Vista, Floor 21: Final Area.

By the time that Asuna had caught up with Kirito, he was well in form for the day. His stance was easier, and he had shaken thoughts from the other world out of his head. His mind was honed into the pure calculatory force behind his blade, and in this state of mind, she was willing to bet nothing could stop him. At least; nothing on this floor. She watched him swing about his new longsword type weapon with fierce abandon, slicing through masses of animal fodder.

At least he had been until he saw her. Then he realized he was looking at Asuna of SAO and not Asuna the Undine of ALO. She too had paused at his new..or should we say old, look. They both had no distinguishing items on so they both were as when they had joined SAO, Kirito with his simple blue shirt and strap over the chest to hold his over-the-back sheath, and Asuna with her simple white over brown fit over.

_We both...chose to change our avatar...at the same time..._

However, they had business to attend to, and had shaken it off eventually to get back to their prior state of mind.

This entire floor held a woodsy theme, and the beasts it reared were wolves, bears, tigers and the like. As far as Asuna remembered, this flors boss was a Lion who might have served better as a griffin, for want of wings and bird features but not for want of size. She fought to keep up with her spouse's abandon as she remembered the details.

Leyonor the Jungle King, he has the typical four bars and has tiger and bear minions.

_Lions, Tigers and Bears oh my!_

Squashing the errant thought as quickly as she could slice a wolf in half, Asuna continued her mental review of what lay ahead.

_The tigers are fast, they are armored along their backs and head, but their legs and bellies are vulnerable. The Bears are slower but have a high attack and are armored almost everywhere but the mouth and eyes. Leyonor himself is fast and powerful, but his A.I is not the greatest._

"Duck!"

Asuna obeyed the command instantly, without thinking, and watched with some detachment as a Jaguar like creature that had been about to throttle her from behind was cleaved in two. She took the advantage to slash out in front of her, stabbing right through a dire wolf heading for Kirito's own back.

The nodded in acknowledgment before more animals charged, prompting them to separate.

_It is easy to provoke him with a powerful blow and then when he focuses his attacks on that person, rush his unprotected sides and behind. He is armored on the back and belly, so trying to ride him, as one of our former assault team members had tried, is not effective...he was just lucky he did not die...the idiot. I think he died...on floor 45..._

She sobered at the memory.

_That floor had been kind to no player._

Asuna came to to realize she was backed up against Kirito,Leafa and Recon, a square of outwards pointing blades as the pack of beasts ranging from Leapord and Jaguar to Hyena and Wolf surrounded them.

"Kirito."

The addressed answered in a terse voice. She could tell his teeth were grit even without seeing his face to confirm.

"What level are you now?"

"Levels don't exist in this game."

She was surprised by the quick answer before she had to mentally slap herself.

"...Right. Damn. What is your HP then?"

He took a cursory glance at the four bars on his screen, focusing on his momentarily before flicking his eyes back to the enemy force in front of him. His answer was tinged with an emotion she could not exactly identify.

"448 out of 520."

The number was far less than she had expected, but then, she had been still thinking in SAO terms until he had reminded her where they really were.

"That number does not make me feel very good. At least you have a better weapon than before..."

Asuna felt him shrug self consciously.

"I was looking for a longsword on these guys and I ran around a good amount hoping one would drop on this floor before you caught up with me. A War Grizzly had this... I fought a group of five of them. They caught me by surprise."

Another shrug. She had a feeling that if he were not worried about the circle around them he would rub the back of his head thoughtfully.

"My skills are intact however, and I was training my stats as best I can...fighting these guys gives them a nice boost, especially with my fight style, boosts attack nicely.

She could feel his grin even with his back to her.

"I really want to work on my speed, since all physical aspects of this game are controlled by our actual althetic ability...so I don't have to worry about hitting the reaction speed limit in here."

He had cleaved two beasts in two during this statement, keeping his side of monsters at bay by flicking his blade to let them know that their comrade's fates would be shared if they came as close as they had.

Around them the ring established, too far for Kirito to reach casually with his blade without breaking formation with the others. Brown wolfs massed with jaguars and bears ringing them to prevent break through. Kirito grit his teeth. True the boss was not the most intelligent of A.I's, but his minions and by extension the monsters on this floor, were brilliant.

_Damn it. The wolves are going for lunge attacks now. Quick in and out before we have much chance to retaliate. If we try to get a more favorable position on the charger, we leave our backs open for the rest..._

Kirito swung up his long sword to parry the gnashing teeth of a wolf that had lunged at him. He swung at it as it landed from his rebuke, but it had already scampered back and another had launched to take it's place.

_If we just stand here, backs to each other, we are safe from attack and can fend them off, but these won't tire like we will...they can keep this up until we die. If we move we can be singled out and devoured..._

Narrowing his eyes, he cast about for a solution, cursing the fact that he could not access his dual blades. According to Kayaba, it was bestowed upon the player with the best reaction speed...but how long did it take to calculate who had the best? He knew that the fact he had carried it before was no guarantee it would be bestowed upon him again...ALO had a whole set of new people to match and out match the population SAO had held, dwindling in its two year long dear game.

Kirito had been the best...there was no guarantee that he still was. Or perhaps he had to wait for a certain level, a certain trigger event...he knew not.

A wolf lunged for his throat, and Kirito decided that instead of blocking it's advance, hes take the risk.

"Asuna! Keep Recons left flank covered! When I draw them away attack them from behind!"

What?!

Asuna watched as Kirito leapt to meet the wolf, slashing at in in passing clean in half from the side. He disappeared into the mass of creatures as they engulfed him.

Idiot! You can't-

_Kirito_ was a thin and wiry person, his lungs were not suited for roars, but more of raw-throated yells, battle cries that Asuna had come to associate with his displays of the impossible. She too had moments where she lost control...

...but unlike her when he lost it...

He gained it.

Kirito landed in the midst of the crowd, his long sword swung out in front of him and his face set.

_Now...is not the time for hesitation!_

Kirito flashed his blade out, a silver arc that cut an enemy in half. He jumped over a wolf, his hand on it's back, pushing it down as he used the leverage to slice off the rabid jaws of two of it's fellows. His blade continued its arc as his momentum carried him forwards, slicing into another beast as he spun his body, slashing through the wolf he had used as a vaulting pole. He flipped his blade to block a bite and received a swipe on the shoulder for his troubles.

_Faster...no time to think! Use instinct..._

An image of his sister in kendo gear surfaced, her weapon slicing down for him from above.

_Aim...for the head!_

Kirito bent low, his slash carrying his blade through legs to soar upwards, sending three leopard like creatures flying. He followed up by jumping after them, forcing his body to spiral with his blade to destroy the three. He forced his blade to come crashing down with as much abandon as he could, smashing skulls. The force of his blow blew a few others away, and Kirito noticed the bears beginning to rush in.

He swung his blade up to swat away another lunging wolf, but a second bypassed his swing, getting in past his guard. Without pausing to think, Kirito's fist came out, an aura surrounding it.

_That's right! I still have...this! Martial Arts sword skills!_

His punch was enough to send the wolf bowling into a bear. Kirito slashed out, his aim coming soaring up from the ground, his adrenaline serving as strength to add momentum, letting his blade lift the bear and wolf both as it caught it between the legs, the slash continuing through its body so that it shattered in front of his face. He could see Recon from the corner of his eye, looking beat up around the edges but alive.

_I will not let...any party members die. Feel the sword skill activate with your body._

Righteous Rush

He lunged backwards from a particularly nasty swipe from a grizzly, propelling himself over a wolf with a hand stand to gain more distance before he braced his legs, swinging his blade out like an arrow and rushing forth and felt it activate, charging through the wolf, the bear and anything else behind it, punching a hole in the otherwise inpenetrable defense.

He spun about neatly about to lay hell upon the beasts from this new angle when three of them shattered in front of him, revealing Leafa and Recon. Off to his side, a bear vanished as a figure jumped over it's shattering remains to stab with unerring accuracy into the eyes of two others. She landed near him as they all turned to face their enemies from this newer, freer angle.

"You don't have to do this alone, you idiot, stop scaring me like that!"

The anger warred with relief in his spouses voice and face as Kirito shrugged apologetically before becoming serious again. There were still a good mass of animals to be taken care of...and depite Leafa looking like she wanted to add something, a howl of challenge cut the respite short.

The two forces, player and game, met head on once more.

_**+~-3-~+**_

_Floor 22: First Area - Castrip Village_

"This is..."

Leafa looked to her "brother" for the grounds on his reaction to a peaceful rural town like this. There was nothing particularly special about it, just the customary beginning town that seemed to inhabit a good many floors in this always upwards "castle" called Aincrad. He was not, however, looking at the villagers and buildings, she could guess. Something else haunted him. She would ask Asuna but...she too was affected.

Unlike Kirito though, she was not able to say anything. Just look. Look with a blank face that was doctored to show nothing. Recon knew even less than she so she got no help from him, just a shrug. She was about to just let them be when a tight, curt voice came from her brother in clipped tones.

"Leafa, Recon."

Having long since dropped honorifics with either of them, since Leafa was his sister and Recon's jealousy having been melted upon the knowledge of this to harden into a steadfast, quickly formed friend, Kirito cut quickly to the chase, reaching out to grab Asuna by the hand to shake her out of her trance.

Lefea turned to look at him just in tim to see him kneeling to allow Asuna to climb on him and she sputtered at the sight. Since...since when did he give piggy back rides and wasn't she too old for one!?

_...and couldn't she get one sometime...?_

"Y...yes?"

_I need to find out. I can't function until I do...I have to know...I have to._

His hand snaked out into the air before he hit a button to leave her party, just as she had realized Asuna had already done so. His face arranged itself into a set pose when a window popped up from Asuna prompting him to join hers.

"We have some business to take care of. Do you guys think you can handle ourselves for a while?"

In a completely safe beginners town on a brand new floor where there will be a ton of quests we have first dibs on? Has big brother gone a little crazy? Of course we will be fine...

"Y-yes I don't think there will be any problem-"

She stopped when she realized she had been talking to empty air. Her hair floated upwards in the wind not all completely from Kirito's abrupt departure. He had stayed long enough to hear they would be fine, no longer than that. He had become a rapidly shrinking dot during the rest of it.

"..."

'. . .'

Kirito ran light and fast, his breathing even despite carrying Asuna on his back. It was true this game relied very heavily on your actual physical ability, but it had to, on some points, enhance the truth a little. Kirito doubted he could carry the actual Asuna this easily as Kazuto, despite his vigorous training regime in rehab and in Kendo to rebuild lost muscle mass. Kirito was not made to be bulky, his genes called for the wiry, ropy musculature structure, where muscles were thin and strong, hugging his skeleton tightly.

_Still I have to admit..._

Still it pleased him that he could still do this. In SAO proper, he had to rely on his strength stat for it. It was good to know that in ALO, the game thought he was at least capable enough that it could enhance the truth to include him being able to carry Asuna like this. It made things much more convenient.

_...I have never actually..._

Kirito jumped over a log, having left the beaten dirt road some time ago. Yui rode in his pocket, peeking out over its flap and searching with her own special methods. However, personal property buildings were not set landmarks, for obvious reasons of privacy, and it was not pinnable object like a player was, as it was unlikely to move...I mean how many houses can get up and walk around on their own anyway...?

_...attempted to lift Asuna up and carry her like this as Kazuto._

A small grin played war for the set serious expression on his face, but the serious one won.

_Might be fun to try one day...see her reaction._

A lizardman like creature formed up ahead of him, flicking it's tongue at him and wielding it;s blade. Without pausing, Kirito summoned his longsword and charged a skill, but before he could even get half way there he was already by the beast, so he ended up stabbing it right through and through, shattering it. Ahead of it, three more formed, so Kirito slowed and when he felt Asuna shift, decided to lunge forth and slash out his blade, glowing green in a flash that sent his sword through all three twice, they dissipated as Kirito landed hard, but he kept right on running.

He was rewarded by hearing her give a small "hmph..." and return to her original position of holding on. This time his grin won out and floated into his voice.

"I did not want to disturb your ride, so I took care of them myself. I didn;t think you would object."

He could tell she was pulling a wry face at his comment.

"I don't object...much. I keep telling you that its not necessary to do it all yourself...save some for me dang it. EXP hog."

Kirito tried but he could not stop a good chuckle from escaping him, which he knew would be earning the back of his neck a glare.

"No level up system anyway."

He heard her hum lightly in place of a real response to that one. A soft "hmm" of accent. He was about to add something more when Yui interrupted.

"We are almost there Papa..."

Asuna jumped off his back and landed lightly on the ground. Kirito went first, pushing a branch out of the way so that his eyes could see what was ahead.

_**+~E~+**_

I decided to cut this short. I had a different idea in mind but decided that if indeed this turned out to become a multi chapter fic...then I was doing to much with this. As for if it is a one-shot, I think it has adequate gravity for that at this point. But hey...It's up to you all. I was in a rush towards the end, and I removed many ideas from this document before letting it go, it used to be much longer...but hey, enough about that!

Will you play with me? Or discard me like a broken toy?

Read and Review, if you care to.


	2. Imprints

_**+VOSSAO+**_

LONG AUTHORS NOTE PROXIMITY WARNING

_You know...this is twice that I have been taught a painful lesson. I already had this chapter half finished. More than that actually. I had the main event and core processes of it figured out and typed up. It was essentially done save for the closing pieces and transition for the next chapter's opener. I had a very long authors note detailing how I had been taught this same painful lesson I am talking about now... _

_The first time...I took a long break from writing a story of mine called "LemonGrass Stains" due to the fact my computer had been slowly dying. I tried a lot to save it, up to and including wiping external hard-drives to put OS's on them in an effort to run off those. When all was said and done however, I wasn't left with nothing. No remaining information of what was an extensive library of ideas, mini-stories, pictures, music, videos and programs. Games. Self made or otherwise. Programs for making and editing music files. Programs for editing movies. Website Projects, Self made programs. I think it all totaled about 400 gigs of space, all on different medias. I have only managed to save about 5-8 gigs of that on this new machine of mine._

_This second time...well that file with all the core pieces and the main event was saved like most documents should be, under the My Documents. However I was doing some work with a large amount of media, mainly 129 videos, and the videos auto saved to guess where? Documents. Now I, like an idiot, dragged down to select all of them, not noticing that they have been alphabetically organized, and thus my story was in the middle somewhere. I converted them all into mp3 files, put them on a flash and then deleted the whole lot before transferring the file from flash to another computer then cleaning the flash._

_Apparently my document did not copy to the other computer, and since I cleaned everything up here...well, I did try to recover the file. I used a program to sniff out deleted files. However, the disk space that my file was on seemed to have been...prime real estate. Even if I had not downloaded anything myself, the computer thought it appropriate to, well ,over write the space the file was with some EFI file. It was unrecoverable...this upset me because things I had deleted WEEKS ago were still there and perfectly recoverable, but something deleted a few hours ago was not..._

_Well...would you look at this, The second time around and I STILL make a long "ass" author's note. I Hope I can do the next part just as well as the previous or better. I can never write something exactly the same twice however..._

_~C.F Winchester , Finalage._

_**+SAOVOS+**_

_Sword _അ _Art _അ _Online_

**Visions of Swordland**

**Chapter 2**: _Imprints _

(Those that we leave behind are not always the people we touch; but that which has touched us.)

_**+-SAOVOS-+**_

The sparkling water lent the sun a beautiful angle to reflect across the small clearing that Kirito had revealed. The house was there in all it's glory, the same path leading up to it, immaculately kept but bursting with new seasons flowers along the edges. They waved lightly in the breeze. It was still a bit of a distance off, but it was there...and it beckoned him.

He pushed the branches further out of the way to give Asuna an unobstructed view as well, and he felt more than heard her surprise, her relief, her joy. It was there. This trip had not been for nothing...but even as he thought that, a little voice piped up in his head.

_Yeah, it's there, but do we still own it?_

It was again back to what he knew about previous homeowners, how they had purchased land on pre-existing buildings and lost the "ownership" of that home when checking back in this new, "wiped" SAO. Kirito's wings involuntarily flexed as he observed the house. It would be a real blow to his ego if they no longer owned it.

"Kirito..?"

He snapped from his thought train to smile back at Asuna.

"I was just thinking. Did you say something?"

She shook her head, but he knew what was on her mind. The same thing that had just been on his.

"Do we still own it is the question...wait."

His tone changed so abruptly, Asuna shot him a look and then followed his eyes.

"Yui."

Flying from his pocket, she landed on his shoulder and also tried to stare out to see what Kirito wanted to talk about. His tone was flat and crisp, one that spoke of more curiosity than danger, but had a temper of anger to it. It took her a moment to pick out what is was that Kirito was seeing.

Someone was sitting on the railing along the porch. They, whoever they were, had their back to the three of them, but that was all she could tell at this distance. She could not sense any players but her Papa and Mama though...and before she could even say this, Kirito seemed to know.

"Not a player, or you would have warned us before...I doubt it is a monster though."

"Monster's don't sit on porch railings..."

Kirito nodded at this additive from Asuna. He swung out his sword and shifted it around to check balance while he thought.

_A monster would not be able to enter a private dwelling, since it acts similar to a major town and erects a barrier about it that prevents monsters from simply wandering in, it's a safe zone...only a boss with an express ability barring the situation, like a quest in which you have to stop the monster from entering the safe zoned area, can possibly enter a safe zone. Either that or deliberate sabotage by players could bring a monster into a safe zone but..._

Kirito hunkered down, and Yui took flight to land on Asuna as Kirito braced his feet and took off, Asuna trailing not to far behind with Yui in tow.

_That option makes little sense. It could be a player, but what player would be able to keep themselves from being listed on the map where Yui can see, and why? Why hide, why come and wait by our house...why._

His blade was like an extension of his arm, and it streamed behind him as he ran, gripped tightly in his hand, and as he drew closer, his eyes narrowed. The figure was darkly dressed, almost as if it was all in black.

_I doubt it is an NPC or Quest giving character. It just doesn't feel right. It almost feels like..._

Kirito caught the dull gleam on it's shoulders. It was armored, and armed too it seemed. His conviction solidified, he pushed harder, running faster and leaving Asuna behind to catch up. His rapid approach made the figure stand from it's spot on the railing, but it had yet to turn around...and Kirito did not need it to.

_My brain is telling me one thing, but I refuse to believe that scenario. I can't...it would be...dangerous._

As if deciding on something, the figure leaned backwards along the railing, casually twisting so it flipped off and landed on the ground, half turning to face Kirito as he came up and skidded to a stop near it.

_...Then again, I cannot deny what I now see._

He was staring at himself. He heard a crash followed by a strangled scream, although it was more of a pained mewl. He spun around to see Asuna on the ground, and Yui braced against an invisible something...his brain clicked and his teeth set in a grit.

_A barrier. A barrier has been erected to separate us...and by the way Yui's is flying around I would guess the barrier is around the house and I, not Asuna and Yui...locking me in with this...thing._

"Hey, hey, this is my house. What are you doing here?"

Kirito turned and looked at the figure that spoke. It was him, and yet...not him. It carried two blades, The Elucidator and Dark Repulsor. It carried his armor, and he bet his old stats too. Yet this close up, it registered as nothing definite.

"Hey, hey, this is my house. What are you doing here?"

The tone was flat, dead. The words were rinsed, repeated. Kirito could not help but interject.

"This is my home."

The...copy...seemed to pause as it's A.I registered a response. It collected it's wits before speaking again, this time with a far better emotional state.

"Oh? This is my house. If you want it, you'll have to take it. If you want what I have, you'll have to prove you can handle it."

It assumed a ready stance, and Kirito saw a message flash across his screen. A Duel Challenge...but the stipulations were out of his hands. It was issued with the text "Duel" and with the standard timer, but the format was that of a boss. Kirito watched as one, two, three, four...five health bars popped up, along with the name.

"Kirito"

His brokers list updated with public access data that the boss itself was giving off.

~Kirito~

Healthbar 10,000 x 5

Carries: 2 Long Sword type weapons (One Handed)

Armored Humanoid

Minions: None

Drop: A-S Class, unknown.

Elemental Status: Normal

No specific weaknesses defined.

Kirito twirled his long sword in one hand as he circled his opponent, looking for a way to strike and open this fight...but despite his calm exterior, his mind was reeling.

_A one on one with something that may have stats similar or identical to those I had at the end of floor seventy five, only with 50,000 HP. I had about 20k than...not 50! To fight this one on one...can I even damage it...?_

"Papa!"

"Kirito!"

Kirito idly wondered how long it had been since he had stopped being "kun" to Asuna. No doubt that it was a final intimacy, one that he accepted and loved; being able to simply drop the honorific was a big deal...but he could not remember when it had occurred... His thoughts broke off when the boss shot at him in a blur of black, it's right hand slashing from left to right and its left stabbing out. Kirito barely dodged the move as he saw the boss jump up with his left handed stab before he spun around to Kirito's new angle and swung both blades straight across where his midriff had been just a second earlier.

_Shit! It's fast! I can't let it hit me...one of those hits would kill me!_

Kirito backpedaled against another dual bladed midriff slash and then jumped to his left to avoid a downwards x slash. It was then that it hit him. The boss was using Starburst Stream! He just had to...

_I just have to remember the pattern and avoid it. Just the same as Kayaba did to me, I can do to this._

Kirito backflipped away from the following upwards x slash, landing on his feet in time to duck from a lunging stab and slash the boss had executed, rolling behind it to leap upwards and as the boss leapt up to follow it's stab in the air, Kirito laid open it's back and sides with five quick slashes. He was briefly dismayed at how they seemed to do no damage, and how the boss almost beheaded him for his trouble...until something else grabbed his attention.

The fact that even that small amount of damage let him see the boss had a battle healing ability.

_Damn. With fifty kilo HP and battle healing I would estimate he can heal about 2k HP every ten seconds, if his stats are similar to what I had before. With that kind of healing...what CAN I do to him?! Even if he stood still...it would take all day!_

Kirito ducked under a slash, stepping sideways to avoid a stab and slashing down on the bosses wrist, trying his best to get past the armor, but he was brushed off as easily as he would smack away a basketball. He landed by the barrier, hard on his behind.

"Papa!"

Kirito was instantly up. He met the boss almost instantly again, as it had charged him when he fell. Yui had been trying to tell him something with that yell...not just that if was coming back for him...something else. He lost her words in the flurry of trying to avoid getting dismembered.

He sliced at the bosses hand again, and this time he noticed what she was probably trying to tell him. A flash.

_When a boss is hit on it's armor it deflects the blast unless it is strong enough to overcome it's defense rating, if that happens it will either allow the player's hit to go through that limb/body part, or; if the system allows, shatter the armor..._

but with a player, it is different. The armor shows a decreasing durability rating. It's done quickly, and to anyone outside the player himself, it's no more than a flash of light, only if you are looking for it will you find it...

_This boss's armor act's like a players! That means..._

Kirito ducked under another swipe and for the first time was unable to duck or weave at all, and had to resort to slashing up his blade in an attempt to parry. It shattered on contact with the other but it allowed him a moments pause to slip to the side and kick the boss in the wrist, making the same gloved hand flash again and upsetting the bosses' rhythm enough for him to grab it and bodily try to toss him.

He was half successful. He could not toss the boss, but he could make him fall to the ground, which gave Kirito time to bring out his BroadSword from his inventory while it righted itself and came back at him.

_It's just you and me again. Please, help me conquer this obstacle too, then I promise you can rest._

This BroadSword had less durability than the LongSword. It was a lower rated item, only it's weapon type allowed it to have a similar attack range. He swung his blade experimentally before artfully ducking under a dual bladed stab and tackling the boss's legs. He took flight before he could receive and retaliation, and came back down in time to sidestep an X bladed slash and slice at the bosses wrist again. He had to hastily jump back from a retaliatory stab and almost lost his balance, instead doing a kind of awkward hop to avoid getting skewered by the other blade.

"Kirito, steal his blade from him!"

_What?!_

He ducked under another slash and hazarded Asuna a glance. She was against the barrier, Yui almost forming a looping halo above her head, or maybe an electron-ish orbit around her body...he did not have much time to stare to differentiate. Steal it from him? That was...

_...Perfectly reasonable. Spirigates are natural born tricksters and wielders of illusion magic. Sure, in this area magic was impossible, but that did not stop the fact my race has attributes, like increasing the success of thievery..._

Under another activation of Starburst Stream, Kirito grinned as he let his instinct take over.

Stealing was a skill, like tracking or Detection...no magic required. Those were built into SAO even before it had become a part of ALO...If I steal one of his blades at the right moment, make him lose his grip before attempting it, I might succeed, and it will raise my attack to instantly equip it...and lower his! Same with his defense...his stats will lower as mine increase...since his stuff is just like a players...

Triumph was in his face as Kirito bore through the last vestiges of Starburst and sliced at the same gloved hand again, but this time, instead of kicking it, which the boss was shifting its body to prepare for, he shifted his broadsword to a one handed hold, which it promptly fell out of, in order to punch the boss in the face. He grabbed his blade as it fell and the boss reeled, his hands closing on it just in time to run the boss through and sidestep to avoid retaliation before kicking the same hand again as he disengaged.

Hey, he never said he wasn't going to kick it anymore. He turned that kick into a spin that took him around and under a slash, his own blade slicing through the bosses' middle. He noticed the boss was still at full health.

_I'm not going to let that bother me though...battle healing may heal the damage to the person...but it does NOT restore your armor's durability! My gloves were fingerless bracer type armor. They allow free movement and protect the wrist as well as reinforce the armor a body type or coat overlay may provide, they have high stat yield...for the glove types that is; however they have low durability, and no weather protection to boot._

Kirito started a charge that turned into a flying tackle, but instead of flying past the boss, he grabbed it and let his feet touch the ground before jumping up and flying as high as he could. He only had maybe five seconds...

...the boss broke that plan by breaking free. Kirito retaliated by stabbing out and spearing its wrist, making it let go of Dark Repulsor as it slashed down on the spine of his BroadSword, fracturing it and causing it massive damage. It was only Kirito's quick redraw of it that saved its last durability being leached. His wings had a split second left before they gave out on him, but he used that to knock the other's hand aside and grab a hold of Dark Repulsor.

The left hand bracer of the boss shattered.

_Mine. Mine now! It's the same one! I can feel it! The weight, the Soul of it!_

The boss fell to the ground hard, but Kirito rolled and got up in time to see it spring up in the fashion Kirito himself was famous for. It seemed momentarily confused about having only one blade before it settled itself into a ready stance.

_I want it's coat next. That's my coat damn it. That was my signature. Can't be the Black Swordsman without it. I may have done some negligible damage to the armor and the Coat, but I may need to do much more to get those off him..I would have more luck tugging off a boot. No. I have to shatter them..._

Without speaking, it charged and locked blades with him. Kirito managed to notice that once it had started the battle, this thing lost all of it's programmed speech and humanisms. It became blank faced, and did not show pain, or effort. It was...just robotic perfection.

It pushed him off easily with superior strength. Even with a similar blade, Kirito's core stats were weaker than this monstrosity...but in a game where your athletic ability mattered...he was still faster.

_Now I can parry, but I can't rely on a direct contest of strength. Dark Repulsor was made well, and it has a good durability rating, but I don't want to put it to the test against an equally good weapon and a stronger arm. No. I have to continue my current strategy._

Kirito quickly attacked the other bracer, which fell victim after three quick operations of slice and withdraw, but by the time Kirito managed to pull it off, the boss almost cut him in half twice. That approach was not going to work anymore. So Kirito let the boss take the initiative. he let the boss charge him before sidestepping and slashing at it's feet, waist, anything he could. But this tactic of quick,violent bursts of energy and endless circling began another problem.

_The boss is almost at four bars...but I can't keep this up forever...I hate to admit it but I'm starting to get tired. I can't keep this up. I have to make it break formation and charge me at least every ten seconds or I lose what I have gained from battle healing, it's a slow slide, I have to deal more than 2,000 every ten seconds or I slip back._

Kirito initiated a charge and ducked under The Elucidator before he kicked the arm as hard as he could away, running his blade through the chest of the boss and using his other arm to pin the bosses' blade arm away. He locked his elbow and hoped he could wring some HP out this way, but it was impossible to lock his elbow.

The boss was fighting too hard, and Kirito was forced to kick off to the left or get killed. He panted as he watched the HP drop till the fourth bar was shown at maybe 7/8th's. He ducked under a slash that would have beheaded him and swept his foot to take the bosses' feet from under him, and then stabbed upward at the chest again. He had to twist away from retaliation, and rolled away just as the boss buried Elucidator in the earth.

Kirito sprung up and attacked the unprotected back, aiming again at the coat and armor.

_In most battles, I would just aim to do the most damage I could, but since I am trying to target the armor...nothing I do can be wrong. It must break before the boss goes down. I have to lower his defense. I have to cut him down to size...I must._

Kirito let just one more blow fall before spinning away as the boss yanked Elucidator free, spinning to slash where he had been. Kirito swung out Repulsor, just letting his lade touch the others, adding his strength to the other's momentum to push the blade further away before slamming his right hand palm first up into it's chin, pouring as much of his strength as he dared as he tried to fly up that way. He failed to take off with the boss in tow, but he upsetted its balance as he rushed up.

He flipped in the air as he took a glance up in the corner, where he could still see both his and Asuna's bars.

_I will never. Ever. Let something like you be the cause of a party member dying on me!_

Pointing his blade downwards, he pushed himself down with a burst of his last flight speed, forcing himself to fall faster than gravity would have initially allowed.

_**+-~1~-+**_

Asuna pounded a fist ineffectually against the barrier blocking her from the battle, being reminded by the system that it was, after all, an immortal object. She and Yui had done all they could, which amounted to an infuriating little save yelling uselessly. Oh no, she knew that her advice was being taken, but if she had to be frank, she knew that whatever she was saying would have already been found out by Kirito if he had been alone. He was distracted. By her. By Yui...

_Kirito, despite his reputation, cared for people, and not just his circle of friends. He genuinely cared for people. I knew this and wondered why he had avoided guilds once..._

Asuna watched as Kirito ducked under a swipe from his opponent's weapon and threw a hard punch into it's middle, his fist glowing with she she knew was the pent energy from a martial arts skill. Ever since the "SAO patch" as people were calling it, sword skills had been introduced as an add-on to the overhauled ability system. They added variety to a game that desperately needed it.

As she watched Kirito bend back to avoid a slash, she marveled at his ability to innovate, at his sheer ability to react. He bent back, but also shot his foot upwards so that it connected with the bosses blade, turning his bend into a flip and once he landed, tried to take advantage of the upset of balance. He did not get very far, but it saved his skin from getting spitted.

He was never as quick or as accurate as I was. However, his ability to react far exceeds mine. If you can break off my attack, stop me for a moment, it takes time for me to recover, to react to the change.

Kirito sidestepped a lunge and spun in half circle to slash at the bosses leg, succeeding in shattering his mailed leggings. He grinned before ducking under a retaliatory strike, his fist glowing momentarily as he sent it flying into the other's midsection, succeeding in momentarily stumbling him.

_"So..."_

_A thin rapier was all her world as she changed her grip to strike her downed foe._

_"I don't want to die!"_

_A pause, a withdrawal...a smirk, a reversal. His blade was suddenly in his hands and hers knocked away. She was...stunned. Unable to react, or think. He was up, he had...tricked her!_

_A blade rose high in the air as she realized she would have to dodge...dodge...move damn it! React!_

_"YOU SURE ARE GULLIBLE, VICE COMMANDER!"_

_From behind her, a wind, rushing, rising. A figure was suddenly in front of her, without a weapon, his arm thrown forwards to stop the attack. The blade cut through his arm, severing his hand from it, and that same, raw throated yell broke to the surface._

_With a fist glowing yellow, he struck hard and true. His power was such that even without the blade, he took him down from the yellow zone, to red, to nil._

_"Ka...heh...you murderer." _

The bosses' stumble was enough an opening for Kirito to run him through, piercing his armor and breaking it. He disengaged and began a furious set of ducking and striking, no longer worried about breaking pieces of armor specifically. No, this new strategy was bourne of more desperation that previously seen.

_He's moving slower. No...he's getting tired! Damn it!_

She grit her teeth as she stood presed against the barrier. It had to be that. This battle had screamed past the five minute mark, and though Kirito had obviously been in sieges against bosses for longer than that, he had never kept the sole focus of an opponent for this long, not that she knew of. The longest duel she had seen him have was against Heathcliff before he joined the Knights of The Blood Oath...and that was only just above a minute and a half.

_Not only that, but we just came from a Raid on a boss, and his minions before that. He had run here from the town, without any chance of rest or recuperation, he carried me here too. _

Her face leveled into a hard grimace.

_He was far from fresh when he started this battle...and it's taking a toll. If he falls here...what will happen? We can't die anymore...but will we be unable to get to our house? Will it be permitted to come back and try again...?_

"Kirito! S..stop! We can give up here, it's not important! We could come back, we could..."

His body twisted away from a stab as Kirito grabbed the blade, locking his fingers around the surprisingly warm edge before he struck hard with his foot tot he chest of the boss, his blade hand coming down on it's wrist. He could not make it loose the weapon however, and he was forced to break off.

...and she watched the boss settle downwards into the half way point of it's second bar. Kirito ws breathing hard, but ducked successfully under another slash. His face was set in a small smile as he spared Asuna a token glance...she had seen that face before.

_"Just hold on a little longer...okay?"_

_In his eyes were the same calm assurance, gentle yet firm. The power that hid behind them was sure, steady...warm. She could only nod an assent to that face..._

_"Okay."_

_Chains rattled as she moved, and Kirito's face changed, sliding into a serious, business determination. His voice was deep, tinged with disapproval and grit as he spoke to the air._

_"System command...Item generate, ID...Excalibur!"_

Snapping back to reality, she realized that Kirito had drawn back some, as if steeling himself, preparing himself for another charge.

_Again, he is telling me the same thing. It's okay. Just hold on a little longer..._

She missed his whisper, though Yui caught it. Asuna already knew the message however, he did not need to utter it.

"Just hold on. We're going home."

...

Kirito knew that his energy was flagging. This battle was about to hit eight minutes, and his stamina, even with therapy and training, was not made to support him for so long. He was only human...but humans were capable of second winds.

_I just have to hold myself in reserve a little bit. Just until he hits his last bar. Then I will launch a counter offensive. I have to end it...befor he hits me._

Taking a glance at his bar, Kirito saw that while he had not been hit, he had played a good amount with second long parries and feints, and the loss of two weapons to breakage had not gone unpunished in backlash damage, no matter how fast he could disengage.

83/520

He was barely in the yellow zone. Barely being the key. He waited...

The boss dropped to the last bar. Kirito attacked mercilessly. Breaking from his defensive stance held for the past minute, Kirito swung his blade out and clashed against the other's, adding his other hand to his one handed swipe for more power. He slid his blade along the others, dispelling the other's strength by making it's target move until he slammed his blade into the chest, and he kept it there, but was forced to surrender his position in favor of keeping his life. He twisted his blade to lock the boss when it attempted to charge him, and when he succeeded in locking the blade between the two of them, he stabbed the boss again, making his blade peek out of the coat on it's back.

The boss almost managed to kick him off, but Kirito instead kicked himself off.

They met blades for a split second before Kirito ducked under and picked the boss up by the waist. He was heavy, but Kirito tried to fly with him. He failed, but succeeded in adding altitude to a body throw. Falling unto the prone form with his blade, Kirito almost before a spitted piece of meat when the boss thrust it's blade upwards. It rolled to it's feet as Kirito stabbed it in the back.

It's spin threw him off to land a metre away, panting.

It was yellow. Yellow zoned. Last bar, Yellow zone...last bar...Kirito's own health was hovering in the red. The ground had not been kind to him and he knew it. His blade rose, shining with a sword skill, his fist too, glowed ominously.

17/520

Kirito and the boss both charged at once. Kirito sidestepped to avoid the charge and swung his blade at the unprotected feet, tripping it up and sending it sprawling. He launched himself on the boss with his glowing fist, putting all of his conviction into the blow as his blade came down with it.

He struck hard, and kept it there, causing a mini explosion of dust from the packed earth. Something underneath him shattered...and Kirito did not bother to check the window that popped up. He was too busy inspecting the ground. It looked...so inviting.

He allowed himself to land on it and savor the taste of dirt for a while...

_**+-~2~-+**_

Congratulations!

-First Strike Bonus.  
-Last Strike Bonus.  
-Most Damage Bonus.

Rewards:

-Skill set points up. (+)  
-Olrix's Coat  
-The Elucidator  
-Midnight Throw  
-30,000 Yuld  
-S Class Skill Unlocked! (Dual Wielding) Received.  
-House Key

"S-Class skill. So that means it's no longer a unique skill set. It can belong to others."

Kirito paced his house, waiting for the arrival of his sister and Recon. After he had enjoyed a good few seconds of virtual dirt, Asuna had reached near enough to heal him, and they had, together, inspected his winnings, which, to his delight, included an ownership item for the property in front of them. Thier keys.

Keys in hand, the first order of business had been an obligatory sweep of the house. No other monsters had been found during this sweep, and Yui had joined them in her "SAO" form, for the search. She was more comfortable in her original form, and her "parents" more able to interact with her.

Once the search was over, they had settled to less important matters, like reviewing the rest of what Kirito had received. Kirito was no smith, and neither was Asuna, they both could only succeed with the most rudimentary of repairs.

Kirito sat down, making sure not to sit on his coat as he did so, and took a look at The Elucidator.

"My coat and this blade are both not in the best of conditions. The only thing new is this throw-scarf. The rest is my old gear, returned in "poor" condition. They are not critical, but I would not wear this stuff in a battle scenario."

Asuna crossed her arms and made a small "hmph" sound.

"At least you have it back. Maybe you shouldn't have broken the rest of it."

Raising an eyebrow, Kirito almost let himself laugh, but instead let it dance in his eyes.

"I would have had no chance otherwise. The only way to take down his health any was to steal or break his items so I could level the field a little, and how do you suppose I would have been able to take off his armor? You would have had a better shot than me."

Kirito realized a little late what that statement could have been taken as, and he looked up with a little fear at Asuna's reddening face. He swallowed before stammering out as he saw her begin to shake.

"I-I meant with your speed and accuracy, not...well...er...not like that. I...ooh christ..."

He managed to dodge her primary lunge at him, but he could not fend her off entirely. Not that he was sure he would have wanted too...and then when Yui joined in to turn this into a full blown romp around the house playing tag...

A knock on the door would interrupt them before anything was taken very far.

_**+-~E~-+**_

_Why is section two so short and yet section one so dang long? Well, I found that, along with the previously mentioned difficulties, today would be one month since my first chapter was put up. I wanted this chapter done today, and put up at a decent time for it too. Time was against me and I made the second section skimpish as a result. Sorry!~ C.F. Winchester._


	3. Wonder

_**+VOSSAO+**_

_Last chapter was not the "As good or better," that I had hoped for. However, it got the job done, for the most part. I aim to do better this time, if I can. _

_Most of this chapter was written, deleted and re-written in parts as I played around with different lengths of story. This chapter originally had a lot more detail in it, mainly because I planned for the story to move at a much less "grand"(Yeah, riiiight.) pace._

_If I have to be perfectly honest, most of the work done on these chapters so far is done in one day, that is to say, usually a stretch of uninterrupted 2 hour+ time slot. The rest of the time between updates is me fusing with what I wrote, and looking to lengthen it and round it off. As well as find a proper time to spell check it and upload it. There was once a time when I could type two chapters, both about 10k words and plus, with in the span of one day, and update them like that too, but then, alas, I got a job and a life. XD._

_After much debate, I have decided that I will not use honorifics during the course of this story unless they are a deliberate tactic by a character in the story to communicate a certain tone. Honorifics are a large part of the language and culture in Japan, and I respect them greatly, but in English they tend to be distracting. ~C.F Winchester. Finalage._

_**+SAOVOS+**_

**Chapter 3**: _Wonder_

(Sometimes those we are closest to are those who inspire the most of this...familiar...wonder...)

_**+-SAOVOS-+**_

Asuna's hand closed on the door knob as Yui and Kirito attempted to straighten up the house. However, before they finished, Asuna, who had the door half-open, allowed her eyes to widen.

"Hi there Asu-"

She slammed it shut and spun around. Kirito's head snapped up at the noise, however, her eyes were on Yui.

"Yui..."

Kirito gave a half apologetic smile, as he had realized her point. He transferred it to Yui as he whispered in her ear. In the next moment, nothing but a Navigation Pixie was there, floating around him to land on his shoulder.

Nodding at the satisfactory change, Asuna went back and threw the door open to show a semi-startled Leafa and a red-faced Recon.

_Ooh, maybe I slammed the door in his face? Ugh, I did not mean to do that..._

"Sorry, I was trying to fix the hanging hooks and lost my balance, I slammed the door since my hand was on it...did I hit you Recon? I'm sorry if I did..."

Recon blinked once with a considerable amount of effort before shaking his head vigorously, and his voice was a little squeaky, as if he had bent something in his throat and couldn't get it straight yet.

"I-it's okay, I'm alright..."

Asuna stepped aside so that the two of them could enter the house, and Kirito got up from where he had conveniently placed himself on the couch. He clapped his hand on Recon's shoulder and steered him to the place where he had been sitting.

"Would you like anything to drink Recon?"

Recon gave Kirito a wry half-smile as he politely turned down the offer. While it was true that once Recon had discovered that Kirito was in fact Suguha's sister and thus no "competitor" to his endeavour to capture her..

_It still does not change the fact that he was still a "threat", in that he was a protector, one that Sugu,...err...Leafa...err...Kirigaya-san...loves dearly. She loves her brother a lot, and I'll allow her that, and while the guy does not seem to mind me...in fact, as must bg brothers go he has been pretty welcoming and friendly..._

Recon watched Kirito sink into an armchair as Leafa took a seat on the same couch as he was in, and Asuna settled herself in between the two of them. Recon moved a bit away from her to give her space.

_...I still have to step lightly. I've seen what this guy will do to protect things he loves...and I don't fancy tangling with him in this world, OR the real one. Su-err...Kirigaya-san tells me that her brother is nearly as good as she is in Kendo, and he's catching up pretty fast...that and he can counter faster than she can. _

Recon gave a nervous glance at Kirito and saw the figure he was after was relaxed, and held his stare for a second before he tilted his head slightly towards Leafa's direction and gave a barely perceptible nod.

_What...what am I supposed to take that as?_

"Recon! What are you doing, sleeping?"

"Eeeyah!?"

Shaking himself out of his thought train, Recon looked at Leafa, who he was belatedly realizing had asked him a question.

_Uuugh, that's what he meant. He knew I was not paying attention..._

"Ahh, I was thinking, I'm sorry Leafa, what was it you asked me?"

Leafa set her mouth in a frown. He had answered her question just by saying that. Asuna decided to spare the boy further grilling.

"She had asked you why you were so quiet Recon, that's all."

Kirito's eyes flashed once more to Recon before he himself returned to the conversation.

"Well, if players could own their own properties within a game like ALO, it would eventually fill up. Inactive people hogging properties, or simply just a sheer mass of people who have homes all over the place. It makes most sense for the game to have been reset and empty the game of any prior home owner. The fact that this house still exists just proves that the property was formed before the cut off was made, it does not mean its actually...ours."

Kirito's eyes flashed towards Asuna for a split second before he returned his focus on Leafa. By unspoken consent, they had decided to leave out the story of how they had gotten into the house they were now sitting in, instead leaning on the story that they had left key data on the house grounds before leaving the day they had gone to the front lines, and that it had survived along with the house.

Kirito knew it was a slim story, but he waxed it as best he could. He could tell from Asuna's face that it would not be best to reveal what had transpired. He half agreed with this wisdom.

_The fact is, ALO is not SAO. SAO was made with the original players in mind, no increasing player base, no "trash data" building up over the years, just the original players and their comfort. Thus things like owning a home in a consistent, non-channel and field world with a finite space was plausible. ALO however had to be made to support a growing community in which players would come and go, and thus you could not own property in it. Without the benefit of channels like non-vrmmo's have, you have to introduce some constraints..._

Kirito rose from the chair to stretch, and walk towards the window, Yui ringing his continued the train of conversation for him.

"I doubt that, even with the key, we can say we own our home, more like it's a secret area and we just happen to have the only way to access it..."

She looked to Kirito at this and saw him gazing out at the lake from the window. She gained a sly grin and winked to Leafa behind his back.

"Hey, Kirito, could you go out and catch some fish for me? We could probably all use a bite...why not try that lake you're staring at?"

As expected, Kirito spun around with half baked fear written on his face.

"What...? Did you forget how many hours I spent on that lake..."

Her sly smile split into a feral grin.

"Catching nothing yes I remember."

Kirito exploded.

"That lake is CURSED I tell you! I'm not joking! That fish that we saw on the last day was some spawn of a DEMON!"

His tone and face were so desperate, Asuna burst out laughing, and Leafa, who was un-used to seeing her brother so, had to join in, which started a vein pulsing in Kirito's head. Angry, he pointed at the now three laughing patrons, nearly rolling along the couch. He failed to notice Yui rolling along his shoulder, but as that would have hardly improved his mood, it was probably best he didn't.

"I'm telling you! That...lungfish...monster...was not normal! You saw how everyone ran from it! Even the fisherman, he said that lake was the only difficult lake around here, just because of that fish!"

Of course, this only made Asuna laugh harder. She barely had the breath to tell him off on that point.

"...A..and trust you...to pick...the only...lake...in the entire floor...!"

That of course, ended the coherent speech for the day, as Kirito finally calmed enough from his shock at her suggesting fish from THAT lake to see the humor in the request. He did not laugh like they were, but he allowed himself to smile at his own stupidity.

After all, if you can't laugh at yourself...at least try to smile.

_**+-~1~-+**_

_April 9th, 2026- Offline._

Kazuto yawned before rubbing his eyes and blinking to clear them of their heavy feeling. He let his eyes roam over his room, from his computer on it's desk; its triple screens blank and asleep as he had been not even a minute before. He let his eyes roam further to the floor, where his bag stood against the wall, it's front open to show books and paper, all in varying degrees of drying; to be seen. It looked very much like how Kirito would imagine an onion, front layers being peeled back to show the others underneath.

Kirito sat up and allowed his feet to swing in the practiced motion of getting out of bed, his toes touched the ground and the cold floor was what woke him up the rest of the way. With a small creak, he was out of the bed and stretching. All the technology of the modern age, and he still had a bunch of springs in his mattress. He moved about his wireless mouse a bit to check the time before he yawned again and shuffled to his door to get a towel before heading to the shower.

_Today is going to be a boring day..._

Kazuto would be happy for that eventuality. At least, he thought he would. He had drummed up a lot of excitement recently, and a boring day would probably be welcome...Kazuto grabbed his wind-breaker and boots from the sink, squeezing a boot experimentally. It was still damp.

_They will stink soon too, knowing my luck._

He made a mental annotation to wash them when he got home today, and put both items back into the sink. Might as well go with shoes and no jacket. Not like it was cold, and the rain had stopped...

Kazuto narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched a woman climb on the bus and then walk down until she took a seat on the row in front of him. It wasn't that he was angry at the woman in particular, but he had noticed something about her. She had, slowly, day by day, gravitated closer to where he was seated. It was a deliberately slow process. She got on about two stops after he did, and got off at the same one as he.

_There are not many people who take such a long trip, and to tell the truth, there is really only one place you can go if you get off at my stop._

The only question was, how deliberate was this dance going to be? Was she just going to sit in front of him this entire ride without speaking and then, tomorrow, finally confront him? What was it that she wanted anyway?

_Might be better if I start it off. _

Sugu traveled with him on the bus for a short amount of time, but while her ride was about five minutes, his was over an hour. That left a lot of time to...chat. Or, as he had been doing recently, reviewing his homework. He said goodbye to his sister with only half his mind in it.

The woman watched his sister leave the bus and then looked forwards again, not bothering with Kazuto as the bus started again. She sat unusually stiffly as she fiddled with a mail-carrier and was about to pull out a laptop when Kazuto spoke.

"What is it that you want with me?"

She paused mid-tug, but her shoulders bunched up in that same stiff stance. She did not grace him by turning around, but instead spoke to the air in front of her.

"That depends, Dual-weilding Kirito from the Knights of The Blood Oath, or should I call you the Black Swordsman of the Beaters...?"

Silence. He was about to repeat his question when she spoke again.

"Very nice girlfriend you have there. I was under the impression that you had married someone else however. Do you so easily play with the emotions of others, Kirito?"

Kazuto crossed his arms and stared at the back of her head. She still had not turned around.

"That is my sister."

Her head slightly tilted to he side, and her voice made him certain that her eyebrows were probably raised, had she decided to let him see her face.

"Oh? I don't think that was sisterly love that was in her eyes."

Kazuto said nothing, but internally he winced a little. His relationship with Sugu was...complicated. She understood their position, but understanding and whole-heartedly feeling it were too different things. She was still uncomfortable with Asuna, and he knew it. He was hoping exposure to her would help but...it was still apparent that there was more than sibling feelings in her gaze...what he did not know, what he had hoped was that it was invisible to others outside.

Apparently is wasn't.

This woman was sharp, and although it was none of her business, Kazuto heard himself opening the door for her.

"I...won't deny that. Our relationship is complicated. She understands my position, and I am trying to help change hers."

Again, he was certain he could hear the smile creeping into the other's voice.

"Understands...but does not embrace. Oh you are a devil, Kirito. You need to be brought down a few notches. A man can't attract every woman he meets to him, it's rather unhealthy."

Gritting his teeth at that, Kazuto very dearly wanted to tell her to mind her own business. After all, who in the hell...did she think she was? Even as he thought that, he saw her finally twist around so that he could get a proper look at her face. Her right eyebrow was raised above the left one, and a smirk was tugging on her lips.

"Of course, you're going to tell me off. I over step my bounds. I would not call you Kirito, but forgive me, I do not know your actual name."

Kazuto stayed silent for a few minutes, but the woman did not turn back around, or alter her facial expression one bit. Her blue eyes sparkled with some inside joke. He finally relented and spat out what she wanted to hear.

"Kirigaya. Kazuto Kirigaya."

Her smirk smoothed into a less impish sort of expression, namely a smile. He noticed that while clean and white, her teeth were rather lopsided, she had a mild case of chipmunk tooth, but it was only made slightly noticeable by the fact that the two teeth on either side of them were pushed backwards on a sort of inward angle, and her "canines" were rather pointed and pushed out, reminding him of a vampire's.

All in all, she could have done with some braces when she was younger.

"Splendid, Kirigaya. I suppose if you cared, you could call me Ming."

He waited to hear her given name, but she was not forth coming. Since it seemed that she still wanted to talk, as she had not turned around or dropped that somehow irritating smile, he decided to again, ask his original question.

"So. Ming. What. Do. You. Want. With. Me?"

Her smile faded before becoming a small frown.

"Ahh I had hoped you would forget that in light of my sparkling personality."

Kazuto felt an almost visible vein begin to tick in his forehead from the annoyance this woman was posing. She seemed to see it too, for she seemed to lose an outter pomposity and when she spoke, her voice was different, a softer, more mellow tone that had none of that irksome quality.

"I overstep my boundaries again. Please understand. This is my job. You attend the general school set up for SAO survivors, yes? You don't need to answer, I know you do. I...am staff there. A...professor I suppose you could say; though that is not my forte' to be completely honest with you."

He did a double take. He doubted she was old enough for that. She looked to be in her early twenties, at his closest estimate...

She seemed to have expected him to refute her claim, so when he just smiled and nodded, she frowned again, and then seemed to realize something, and a single eyebrow again rose above the other.

"Smart, calculating, and on your feet. I will enjoy working with you, Kirigaya-san. Not many people believe me when I tell them who I am and what I do.

_That's because your job is to mess with 're one of those who are meant to observe us. If your goal was to put me at ease with you, I'm afraid you just accomplished the opposite._

Kirito showed no indication that thought had gone across his head, but she grinned none the less. Sharp. unnaturally sharp, just like her teeth. But her smile dropped as she turned back around. Kazuto however, did not seem to be off the menu, for she spoke again as he was looking over his homework a few minutes later, her back still turned.

"I am sure you are aware that the school you go to is full of surveillance measures. The government is very interested in what we are doing in there. You can hardly pee without five different angles being taken of your wizz."

He looked up. He had suspected as much but to have her say it so bluntly...

"...The staff are in as much scrutiny as the students. I have heard talk of people wondering how "normal" people react when placed with "virtuals" being a key component in their surveillance."

Why was she telling him this? Again, her keen ability seemed to kick in and she beat him to the punch.

"Why? Well, you see...I'm not a, ahh, "normal" am I? I am Mirayla; Master of the Scope Guild Phoenix Anthology, and I was placed not only to monitor, but to be monitored."

His eyes widened slightly. If it were not for her tone, he would have thought she was continuing to play with him, but her voice had once again adopted that softer, sincere lilt, and he felt something else in there...meloncoly?

_Scope guilds were the people who came right behind the Assault Teams. While the Assault Teams had the goal of beating the game as quickly as possible, they moved too quickly, leveled up and grinded too much, to effectively gear themselves. They often ran into dungeons on quick strike raids hoping to get new gear so that they could continue their rush to the top floor, but in reality..._

He stared at the back of the head of the woman in front of him.

_...in reality, they could not do it on their own, soon their rush would become unbalanced, and they would need to slow down to gear, to prepare._

Of course that is true, any team that wants to rush to beat a game as quickly as possible would be stumped by this one fact. You move to quickly to gear yourself effectively, and it soon catches up to you...you have to slow down or risk death.

_That is unless..._

Unless there were guilds and people, merchants, who did this for them. While the Assault Teams focused on pushing past as many floors as possible, the Scope Teams combed, or "scoped" every inch of every floor they left behind, looking for drops and for quests which offered items, materials. They were the ones that filled the broker's lists and merchants shops with gear that the Assault teams used to continue their headlong rush up the floors. Most of the time, guilds that met at boss rooms in the actual raids had at least one or two people that were not always constant.

These non-constant individuals varied, but their role did not. They were scopers who felt confident in lending a helping hand. They were the silent support that made guilds like the Knights of the Blood so famous...

_...and that's what she is doing now. Scoping. Only not for gear, but for my mood. She's scoping my ability..._

Kirito looked up and started; the woman was staring right at him, her face deadpan, but eyes sharp, suddenly struck him that despite his earlier assessment of her being in her early twenties, her features held a kind of gravity to them, something of a much older person, as if an old woman had used a whole host of products to appear youthful, but somehow you could still tell...

_Maybe she isn't too young after all..._

"So. You claim to be staff right?"

She gave no indication of an answer besides a blink to that one. Almost as if his statement was not worth the effort. Kirito decided to plunge on.

"How come I have never seen you before? Its getting pretty close to the end of the main year. This is the last semester. Where have you been?"

She blinked again, but this time decided to give him a response.

"I will answer your question with a question. Have all the players of SAO come out at once?"

Kirito looked at her for a slipt second before he realized what she was driving at.

"You were...?"

Her face finally shifted from deadpan to slightly sad. A small smile was all the humor she gave him.

"One of the three hundred stuck inside a virtual world longer than the rest, yes. Rehab was not kind to me... Which, incidentally, means I owe you my life twice over, doesn't it? Now, incidentally, I believe you know as well as I what those people wanted to do with those...minds."

Kirito turned to look out the window at the passing trees, he moved to put a hand on the window and realized with some surprise he still was holding his homework. He put it away to have something to do with himself, but Ming seemed to realize the tactic. However when she spoke he stopped midway through, for what she was saying was...actually a little more than what he himself knew.

"I told you already. I'm not trying to pry the info from you. I know the story already. Those three hundred..myself included...were being used in an experiment of virtualizing emotion and external interpretation of input, in other words, monitoring how our minds reacted to the virtual inputs we received from our virtual environment, and tweaking them. Collecting the data so that they knew exactly what sections of the brain reacted to what input, and where it went from there. They would then take this data and then send pulses of information into those sections of the brain, attempting to simulate the same response..."

She took a cursory glance around her before continuing, her voice a fraction lower in volume.

"In other words, if they put us in a virtual room in which we are tied to a cross and then whipped raw, they would then take us out of that room and then attempt to make the brain and body feel that same pain...without having to resort to the virtual whip. Most people say it's nothing different. You are still, after all, getting a virtual input that generates a response after all..."

Kirito however, interrupted this train of thought.

"...but what you are saying is that it is not. By forcing the brain to think it's body is being hurt without the visual input, you are cutting out a lot of the effort. You don't need the person to see the whip, or feel it across their skin, or even make them taste the blood in their mouth...you can inflict upon them a fake memory, just as real, without even having to use that effort. What would have taken them an hour in whipping you raw, they can accomplish in a single second."

"Exactly."

Kazuto looked at Ming curiously before speaking again.

"But what do you want with me? You still have not explained what this has to do-"

"I'm getting to that. Keep your pants on, I recon they fall down enough times with all the women around you."

Kazuto's eyes flashed rather dangerously, and his faced morphed from slightly curious to near furious in the span of a single second, he opened his mouth to shoot a retort when he saw that the other's face was rather impish again, and his anger receded into a smouldering pile of disgust. This woman liked to play with people...

She tapped her nose lightly before continuing and Kazuto saw, with some surprise, it was sporting a large bump, as if it had been broken once before. He thought rather bitterly as she continued.

_Probably because her mouth was smarter than her head and someone decided to punch her._

He surprised himself with this thought, since he was usually very calm around women, and, he rather thought himself as mannerly as he could be in usual circumstances...

"If you can make someone believe they have been tortured for an hour when in reality only a second or two has passed, you control them can make them think they are drowning, and unable to take a breath of air to save themselves...you can make them think they have just had a passionate embrace with the person they love...and that this person they trust and adore has asked them to tell them a certain secret...

"However, this amount of control was not enough for them. They wanted more. They wanted to be able to treat a brain like a hard disk. They wanted to not only be able to write...but erase. They wanted to be able to change a person's memory of the past, to re-create them as they desired..."

Kazuto remembered this part. Asuna had told him this. Sugou had wanted to be able to completely modify a person, not only influence what they thought and felt in the moment, or what they believed what was going on from the start of his interference, but he wanted to be able to change their past, to mold them into something completely different, something he could control. Asuna had told Kazuto that some american company was very interested in his work...and even as he thought this, Ming said it.

"An american company wanted to buy this technology from these people, but obviously, you stopped them from getting the completed product."

Even though she said this with a note of gratitude in her voice, her face had gained a darker expression, and her hands once again sought her mail carrier to draw out a case that Kazuto recognized contained a solid state drive that commonly contained games to be put into a system...

_Games..._

_Games..._

_Games... _

_Games like SAO, made as an experiment for one man to be a god._  
_Games like ALO, created to make humans into puppets to dance to the tune of a madman._  
_Games like..._

Kazuto knew what she was going to hand him before her arm even completed the arc over the seat, before she even faced towards him again so that he could see her set determination. His hand came out automatically. Not because he wanted to accept, but because it was habit...

His eyes roved over the cover. It was in english, and it showed a fierce gunfight in progress, the fighters transposed upon a landscape where the setting sun tinged everything in a fiery orange-gold glow. The main female on the cover ws elegantly twisting away from a bullet as her arm was tossed back with her one handed firearm halfway through a retaliatory shot. A male crouched next to her, both his hands occupied by a heavier weapon, whose shot was aimed to zoom past Kazuto's shoulder by blasting through the picture, had it been able to move. Along the top read:

"PROMOTIONAL DISK INSIDE. THIS IS NOT THE GAME, THIS IS A PROOF OF RESERVE PURCHASE."

Along the bottom in bold, metallic green read the words "Gun Gale Online". Underneath these was a smaller footnote:

"Download the beta starting: May 1st, 2026. Look inside for special promo codes and beta set up instructions. Single License Copy."

Kazuto returned the case to Ming, who put it in her pack without turning away from him.

"The beta is scheduled to last two months. The official release is scheduled for the American holiday, Independence Day, July 1st. I don't need to explain to you that this is the first VRMMORPG of this caliber to have been released from America. It has promotional videos that show a very...similar...style to SAO and ALO. I trust you can expect to know what that means."

Kazuto turned his head to look outside again, and did not answer her immediately, but eventually...

"Same framework. Same base system. In other words, this is the company that wanted to buy the project...but it was never completed...they could not have bought it...so I'm guessing they stole it?"

Ming closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side slightly before opening them again. Kazuto assumed this was her form of a shrug.

"I don't know, but I can say I arrived at the same conclusion. The Americans ripped the project notes, half finished, from Japan before it could be destroyed and then built this. They don't seem to be picky about who they let reserve copies, I was able to buy one without any problem...unless they just don't care if people know what they are up too..."

"You still have not explained what it has to do with me though."

Ming, for the first time, expressed surprise.

"...What?"

Kazuto pointed through the seat separating them, where he hazarded her bag must be.

"That is s single license copy you have there. You bought a beta copy for yourself, I assume you want to stop the Americans before they finish this project of theirs...but like I said, that is a single license copy. What does this have to do with me?"

She stared at him a little. Then she blinked. Then blinked again. She almost did it a third time before she cracked a half smile.

"You don't have to enter the beta to prepare yourself. I know your type Kirito. You'll want to finish what you started first. Half of the people who were SAO survivors, including myself, want to try and reach the hundredth floor of that castle. It's...unfinished business. All I'm saying is that not even defeating that castle will finish this. Gun Gale Online...that is where this all ends. You can beat that castle if you want, and maybe I might join in on that...but just keep in mind that's not going to finish this. The castle is a momento, old news..."

He turned back to face forwards, and Kazuto could her hear patting the mail carrier rather loudly.

"This...this is where you should be. Do you think I'll see you on the first then?"

Kazuto furrowed his brows, looking at the back of Ming's head. Aincrad's castle was just a momento huh? Well if she felt that way, it was up to her...but she had a point about Gun Gale. IF she was correct that is. However, he, Kazuto...Kirito the beater...would have to have a little more evidence before he committed.

"...Maybe."

He saw her head dip, though she did not turn around, and the rest of the bus ride passed in silence. However, when Kazuto got up as the bus rumbled to a stop, he saw Ming slowly get up behind him in the buses mirror, and he swore as she passed him, (As he had decided to play gentleman and hold the doors open), that he heard a whisper:

_"Then maybe will just have to do for now."_

_**+-~2~-+**_

Kazuto took a look at his schedule. As it was the start of a new semester, the final one for this year, Kazuto had a few new classes. He had been in an accelerated course for Mathematics, in order to try and "catch up" in his words, on lost time. He saw that, to his disgust, some idiot had put him in a basic computing class. Well, he could not blame them there. Not all gamers, and in fact very few of them really, could cal themselves proficient in computing. Most of them just used the computer for the game, and never gave the machine a second thought.

However, Kazuto had been able to build his own machine from the ground up from the time he was six. He deeply loved and understood the virtual world not only because it was fun and enchanting, but because he knew how it worked, and liked to experiment to see how far he could push its boundaries...

Resigning himself to the thought that he would at least have an easy A to mark his transcript, and maybe some free time to do his own activities, Kazuto arrived at his computer class and took a seat near the back of the room. His computer was almost criminally old, it was running Windows X, which, as far as Kirito knew, was introduced in 2017...and the machine itself looked like it might have a manufacture date of 2013. Ugh. Still, he booted up the fossil and felt instantly bored with it's five second delay from cold boot to log in screen. What machine still had that kind of delay on it?

_Password...there. Someone put it up on the board, probably the professor. "C0MPUT3Rro0mxx" xx being the computer's number code...which is 7E. At least it isn't "P ssw0rd" I have seen that so many times it almost makes me puke. Who is the professor anyway...?_

Kirito looked to the board again as the computer logged in. His eyes roved until he found it, and he had to admit, he was not even the slightest bit surprised at the name he saw there in neat cursive.

"Professor Ming"

_...Figures. _

Kirito looked back at his screen and almost fell off his chair. Instead of the usual hayfield or lily pond, underwater school of fish or whatever other kind of usual default desktop that was displayed, Kazuto encountered a screen saver of a scantily clad woman with a downward view on her...er...you know what...

_Yeah...time to change the desktop._

Two seconds later the browser was up, and he was aghast to discover it had a theme installed on it with a similar taste to the desktop. He prayed no one else would come in and try to sit next to him for the next thirty seconds. It took him about ten seconds to locate a more neutral screen for the desktop and then about five more to un-install the theme on the browser. Then, just to make sure, he checked the screen saver and lock screens, and was rather glad he had.

By the time his half minute was over, he was done, and the door clicked open to reveal Ayamo and Shinozaki. Kazuto paused then, for he realized, with a mixture of amusement and regret, that both his sides where free, and of course, the two girls, looking rather smug as if they were vultures circling a particularly juicy piece of prey, dutifully took both seats. Internally, Kazuto gulped.

_I thought today was going to be boring...why did I have to jinx it...?_

Both of them were smiling at him, though they seemed more like leers in his eyes as their sight caught one another. This time he really did gulp. He looked around for an escape route, but none revealed itself. However, just as Shinozaki was about to speak, the door opened again, and Kazuto breathed a little easier, but only a little.

Asuna had entered the room, and she paused to look at the scene in front of her. Kazuto looking harried and her two friends looking like they had just hid hungry smiles behind innocent ones. Of course, Asuna knew full well that despite being friends, both Shino and Ayamo were after Kazuto, she just chose to let it sail over her head.

She knew Kazuto. She knew how he was, and it was with a rather smug streak of her own that she knew it would take a lot to make Kazuto stray from her. She took the seat directly in front of the three of them, making Kirito feel slightly trapped in this triangle attack...but he still was happy Asuna was there.

_**+-~E~-+**_

_I really wanted this done in time for Halloween, but I just was unable to figure out how to round off this chapter. I kept having ideas, but by the time I was able to sit down to type them, they thread of my thought was gone. I must be getting old. =S. But hey, here we are with...something Oh, of course. I did some research into the Sword Art Universe, I did not look into story arcs or anything like that. I just looked up names. The anime is quick to tell us a character's name, but not the person behind that character. So I had to find that out. The anime mentioned Asuna and Kirito's, (Asuna and Kazuto, of course.) but it neglects others. For instance..._

_Shinozaki Rika is the person who plays "Lisabeth" the pink haired smithy, and of course..._  
_Ayamo Keiko is the person who plays "Silica" our friendly beast master._

_(On a completely separate note, Fan Fiction's cursory spell check, which I use after reviewing the document myself, thinks that the one word "beast-master" should have been "toastmaster" I made it two words just so that it would not change it automatically incase I pressed something by accident.)_

_So. I introduced an O.C, a teacher and SAO survivor, but what really does she want...? She took so long to answer that question for Kirito, one wonders if that really IS the answer. Well...until next time...~C.F. Winchester._


End file.
